


Fissures

by Orcish



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Unwanted Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-12 03:19:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7918447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orcish/pseuds/Orcish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hux retrieves the errant Knight of Ren from the dying planet and deals with feelings he’d rather deny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fissures

**Author's Note:**

> I failed at sleeping, so I thought I might as well do something semi-useful.

The base was in chaos with the men leaving their posts as the planet slowly erupted underneath them. Hux took two stormtroopers with him when he left the base to find the errant Knight of Ren. 

Smoke rose in the distance in all directions and small fissures appeared on the ground, keeping them moving faster to avoid being pulled into the lava pits bursting their way to the surface. The tracker in his hand showed the way, but they had to circle around unstable ground. 

When they found Ren, he was pale and still, and Hux felt his heart squeeze. He told himself that it was panic because Snoke would surely not be happy, if his apprentice died while Hux was tasked in retrieving him. He fell onto his knees next to Ren, staring at the awful lightsaber wound on his face as he reached a shaking hand to check his pulse – and had to pull his hand back to remove the glove. 

The pulse was weak, but present, and Hux ordered the stormtroopers to carry Ren. There was no sight of the man’s helmet or lightsaber and no time to search. The burning pit next to them was caving in with a crack on the other side; he didn’t want to remain there when their side joined it. 

They barely made it to the shuttle – one of the stormtroopers didn’t, but Hux was fast enough to grab Ren’s robe when the trooper let go. He and the remaining stormtrooper carried the Knight into the shuttle the rest of the way and Hux wished Phasma was with him – she could have carried Ren on her own. He hadn’t seen her since the resistance attacked and feared for the worst, although Phasma had a way of surviving impossible odds. 

On board the Finalizer Hux had Ren rushed into the medical and finally had a moment for a small private breakdown, knowing how close he had come to losing his life when the pit which swallowed the stormtrooper opened under their feet, the thin fissures fast cracking wider. He allowed himself one minute to contemplate it, shook off the shivers and continued to work. 

It took time to return a semblance of order amidst the panicked troops and he swore to design training exercises where they had to deal with fire and lava. This sort of flailing around could not be accepted. 

Ren was still unconscious when Hux visited him, but his wounds had been cleaned and treated with bacta. He looked strangely small out of his imposing robes. 

Unbidden, the memory of Ren’s lips on his resurfaced like a burst of lava through the cracks in his mind and Hux sneered, his fingers clenching into a fist. He had no time for sentimentality – the Knight would survive and go finish his training with Snoke, while Hux would be busy keeping this beehive of incompetentness in order. There was no need to remember their illicit affair now – it had ended the moment the Resistance infected the planet and tore fissures all the way through it. 

It was over. Any pain he felt in his chest was stress – he needed to find a way to fix this. All of this. Before the cracks turned into pits of lava and they all burned while the Resistance laughed. He could not afford weakness – his brilliant strategic mind was needed more than ever. 

Hux looked around and allowed himself a brief kiss on Ren’s hand. He hadn’t even realized that he was holding it. He set it down carefully and turned around, pushing the Knight out of his mind and focusing on resuming command. 

Over the next few days, while the Knight recovered, small intrusive thoughts pushed their way through the cracks left behind by the shock of the loss of the Starkiller. Ren would laugh when he realized how he’d enthralled the emotionless General. 

Hux wouldn’t even mind it, if he could hear the man’s true laughter again. It had been surprisingly sweet the only time he heard it. 

He was so gone. Worse off than the Starkiller, his affection for the unstable Knight of Ren a self-destruct rather than sabotage. He hated himself for it. 

When those dark eyes opened, disoriented and searching, Hux couldn’t deny the deep relief he felt. Or the knowledge that it was not just because of what Snoke would do to him, if Ren didn’t survive. The fissures in his mind had opened into wide cracks and caved in until there was no denying it – he was in love with this imbecilic Knight. Stars have mercy on him. 


End file.
